> Had better is an idiomatic verb phrase meaning ?ought to, must.? It

> PS: However English is not my native language either, so I can't
> comment on how frequent this use is (however I think I have already
> seen it several times in books...)
Yeah, but (bizarrely) it refers to the future. "You had better fix those
bugs before we release, or the customers will complain." In this
context, "Some things had better be left imperfect," would suggest that
it is referring to a future design -- some weapon of the future, perhaps
-- whereas I think Tim is specifically trying to suggest that it is too
late to do anything about it. There isn't a nice way of phrasing it for
the past without doing what Darren did (and Tim subsequently said he was
trying to avoid) and suggesting that it is a fact.

As a British speaker of English, I would hesitate to use "had better" in
a context such as this. I would prefer to rephrase the sentence
completely.

-- 
Though  I'm deep  inside a storm  it won't  defeat  me,  Floating  free.
Look out  here comes trouble,  Maybe I'm  just pushing through  a dream,
But strange how things feel quite real to me.  http://surreal.istic.org/
That which will guide the lost child back to her mother's arms... EXILE.

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